The Press Democrat: Print a Storyhttp://www.pressdemocrat.com/business/news/03convcntr_e1empiree.html Center of attention Long-awaited SR conference center and hotel set to open June 29 March 3, 2002 By BLEYS W. ROSE
The swimming pool has more mud than water. The only meals served are being pulled out of construction workers' lunch pails. The main conference meeting room looks more like a big unfinished barn than the finely appointed ballroom that it is planned to be.
And there's just one room available for inspection at Santa Rosa's blossoming hotel and conference center in Railroad Square, yet that's considered a good sign because after 18 years, the long-anticipated project plans to officially open June 29.
"You just find a way to get it open on time, too much is riding on this happening," said Daniel Evans, the hotel general manager who's been on the job just a month.
When finally open for guests and conference-goers, the Vineyard Creek Hotel will repair a nettlesome hole in Sonoma County's tourism and business trade.
"It will put Santa Rosa on the map as a destination for business and conventions," said Ben Stone, Sonoma County Economic Development coordinator. "It will have a ripple effect, spreading the wealth around as visitors shop, buy wine and eat in restaurants."
Stone said only 25 percent of travel to Sonoma County is business-related, and this conference center will do a lot to boost the side of tourism that pales in comparison with leisure tourism.
Since first proposed in 1984, the conference center concept has driven developers and public officials mad with frustration. For years, supporters of downtown Santa Rosa have contended a conference center would be a cornerstone of commerce, but debates over financing and development threatened to turn the project into a running joke.
The hotel and conference center is a $27.5 million project that includes $12.2 million in loans from the city's Redevelopment Agency and other financial incentives. The former Grace Brothers Brewery site was, for nearly two decades, reserved in the eyes of city leaders for a conference center that would revitalize Railroad Square and act as a magnet for business gatherings.
Now, it's come down to a decision whether the amenities tray in each room will feature a French press coffee pot with the gourmet brand of Peets coffee it intends to serve.
"We're still not sure whether each room will have a press pot, but we know we want visitors to have this tea pot, a couple wine glasses and a corkscrew," Evans said, pointing out features in the hotel's model room.
Each of the 155 rooms will also have a desk with plugs for DSL service and electricity. The television will be sequestered in an armoire. Beds -- 100 rooms with kings and 55 rooms with two queens -- will be topped with a cloth canopy that coincidentally bears the name of the "Santa Rosa" pattern.
Evans concedes room rates may drop about $10 a night from the $129 to $229 range that were deemed likely during the heyday of tourism in 2000. The 2001 economic downturn has forced competitors like the Doubletree Inn in Rohnert Park and the Hilton Inn in northern Santa Rosa to list rates of $91 and $99, respectively, on weekend nights.
"We are not going to get stuck in brand snobbery, but we will stay in the high end of any discounts because you can't give your high level of service away at a cheap price," Evans said.
The hotel and conference center is being built by Innkeeper Associates Development, a San Francisco company headed by Norm Rosenblatt. It will be managed by the Rim Corp., which owns 20 hotels in California and Oregon, including the Courtyard by Marriott next door and several boutique-style Heathman hotels from which the Santa Rosa hotel is borrowing ideas.
"Rosenblatt is taking some boutique hotel ideas and put them side-by-side with a convention center," Evans said.
Evans said the Vineyard Creek Hotel will offer a "personal concierge" style of service that will be initially apparent because there will be no front desk. Check-in will be done at one of three free-standing podiums by an employee who will be responsible for a variety of guest-related tasks. That idea comes from the Heathman Hotel in Portland.
Also, the hotel won't have any alcoves with churning ice machines because staff will routinely put bagged ice in buckets concealed in hallway furniture. That idea comes from The Inn at Union Square in San Francisco, another Heathman property.
Courtyards will feature works by North Coast sculptors such as Bruce Johnson and Daniel Oberti. Two outdoor patio areas that face toward Santa Rosa Creek will have laser light displays at night, including illumination of a pedestrian bridge over the waterway. Most hotel rooms will feature photographs by Santa Rosa-based world-traveling photographer Jane Baron.
While the two-story hotel is primarily an attraction for out-of-towner visitors, the convention space bearing the name of former city manager Kenneth R. Blackman will be the draw for locals.
There will be banquet space for 600 or meeting space for 850 in theater-style seating in a single room. Seven suites for smaller meetings are located nearby and most open onto one of five courtyards in the complex.
The DoubleTree Hotel in Rohnert Park can accommodate 1,000 in its largest room, but in Santa Rosa, the only convention competitors are the Flamingo's space for 700, Fountaingrove Inn's space for 450 and the Hilton's for 350.
Evans said the developers are fully aware that the convention center and hotel are opening during a significant economic slump that a recent industry estimated that left half the hotel rooms in Sonoma and Napa empty.
Also slated to open this year are the Sheraton at the Petaluma Marina, the Hilton Homewood Suites in Windsor and the Hilton Garden Inn near the airport.
"With all this new inventory, the demand for rooms will not keep the supply until summer of next year," Evans said. "The pie will be cut a little thinner, but we think we are going after different customers."
Evans predicts a "strong summer" for the hotel, but sees business cooling after October if the economy does not show signs of solid improvement.
The hotel is contracting the restaurant operation with McCormick & Schmick, a Georgia-based corporation that will offer seafood specialties at the "Brasseire De Mer."
Its only restaurants in the Bay Area are McCormick & Kuleto's in San Francisco's Ghiradelli Square and Spenger's Fresh Grotto, a Berkeley landmark that recently underwent a $5 million renovation.
Restaurant seating will accommodate about 200 people, including a separate area for diners affiliated with one of the convention center's meetings.
Off the restaurant, there will be a bar with lounge, large fireplace and wine cabinets.
While the hotel front faces Railroad Square, the rear, the pool and the two largest courtyards face the newly renovated portion of Santa Rosa Creek and its subsurface walkway. Evans said designers plan an 80-foot-long "water wall" that blocks the sound and view of Highway 101.
"When you are having a wedding party in the courtyard, you won't know you are next to a freeway," Evans said.
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